The operation was done on the 22nd of January.

This means that about 10 weeks has transpired since then, and incidentally yesterday was the first time I swam after the operation. A staggering 10 laps in about 30 minutes (yes, it was really slow).

It was really good to be on the water again, though I felt a slightly weird sensation on the end of the 10th lap, which was why I stopped.

Its funny how sometimes I feel just like any other person, and I act and walk fast, only to realise a while later that its a bad idea and my back would remind me of that fact.

Ah yes, I have a 10cm scar on the lower back of my body. Maybe it will impress some people who like scars? @_@
Though somehow I doubt.

When I touch it, it actually feels really weird. *shivers* Okay, lets move on.

Other changes that are obvious to me is my drastically reduced stamina and the fact that I tire a lot easier nowadays.
Add that to the fact that I tend to sleep 10-12 hours a day and I feel like I’m still quite strapped for time sometimes.
Especially when I tend to take naps in the middle of the day when I’m at home.

Sometimes its kinda bleh to know that you got to take it slow, when all you want to do is to run head first to do all the things I want to.

But like I’ve told many people, this is the year of recovery.
Nothing is more important than to recover properly in case a relapse or something happens.

I guess this whole thing has taught me that in life, nothing is more important than health.
With health, you can make money, seek happiness, and achieve great things.

But if you have any of the above without being healthy.. I guess everything is really short-lived.

Hope all of you are doing fine out there too!

I was so tired yesterday that I didn’t get to blog about anything.

Anyways, the verdict from the doctor after 30 minutes of waiting, 2 xrays and $79, the doctor checked my wound, told me its doing okay, told me to keep using the lumbar support until the end of 2 months, start swimming after 3 months, asked about when my MC ends (2 months after) and off I went.

I did manage to ask him to get me in for assisted physiotherapy though, but truth be told I felt somehow cheapened by the experience… ah well. That’s what you do when there’s nothing significant happening in my case, and you’re an associate prof I guess. Time is money~

Declined a lunch/movie offer with an old friend cause I was feeling quite tired after the trip. Couldn’t believe the two xrays made me feel so giddy. I recall a time when taking xrays was like taking pictures, this time I felt like I had swung for 20 rounds in the same spot. Beh.

Grabbed a packet of chicken rice on the way back, managed to get some nap before waking up a couple of hours later to head to Bedok for my haircut.

Managed to get a lift from my friend somewhere before Bedok, and got my hair cut and dyed. I kinda like the look, but I’ll have to play with it a bit more before I know how it looks like most of the time. It does look rather easy to recreate… Time shall tell I guess.

Met Zacky up afterwards for dinner at Bedok market. Bedok is really an “unglam” place according to him. There are only markets and neighbourhood shops. No shopping malls or other stuff. Not unlike Clementi a few years back actually. Hmm~
Anyways we had some noodles and carrot cake, and walked around a bit before I took an hour ride 506 home.

Will show you some pictures of my hair … as and when I do start taking pictures of it.
That’s all for now~

Today marks the one month anniversary of my surgery. On the 22nd of January at this time, I was asleep and wondering what would happen after the operation.

On the 21st of February at 3:47am, I’m wide awake.

The past month has been full of pain and hope, joy and misery, excitement and disappointment, laughter and tears(just a few, when I watch sad shows). It has also been a time of learning and reflection, gaming and show watching, news reading and blogging.

To sum it up, I don’t want to do it again.

Many among you might think that its great being able to stay at home and well, rest and relax.

Well you’re not entirely wrong. Its great initially before the pain kicked in, and the few weeks where lying down causes me pain was quite a nightmare. I didn’t feel like doing anything and I had to force myself to try and learn a new skill, and to even play a new game (Audition).

I was very glad when the pain faded, though I still look forward to the day when I can start swimming daily, and eventually get my life back to normal again.

Come to think of it, the pain only faded a few days ago, and I’ve been sleeping very long hours after that. Going out also tires me out a lot more than it should.

I learnt a few sets of stretching exercises when I met the physiotherapist on Wednesday and have been doing them since Thursday. Its hard to believe, but the complete set of exercises take around 35 minutes, and it leaves a sweaty and very tired Aaron when it ends (though as of today, I’ve learn to set the fan on max and blow it straight at me).

Its not tiring me out that much anymore, no more than the weariness on my mind anyways.

Today is a Sunday. There are loads of things I can do, and many places I can go. But I think I’ll just rest. The though of jostling with the crowd still scares me. Monday would be a perfect time for me to walk around.

Guess its wake, eat & watch show, play, nap, stretch and repeat for today.

Anyways if any of my friends are reading this, do give me a call/sms or msg on msn. I’m pretty bored Most of the time.
You can even ask me out for dinner~ God knows I need the fresh air.

Meanwhile I’ll try to get my act together….
Til then, Adious~

Its been some time since I wrote something about.. my life.

Four to five days at least.

It hasn’t been a good time.. I haven’t slept more than a couple of hours at a time, and my eye-bags were increasing in intensity.

I also got really bored of playing with Facebook, watching shows, and playing Fb games at home.

In fact, it got so bad that I actually started to get a bit depressed.

Lack of sleep + pain + boredom + lack of interaction with humans + not going out does that to me.

So it happened that yesterday I decided to go to Jurongpoint… without a car.

Took a bus over, met Weisiang up for dinner, and then took a bus back.

It wasn’t that bad, and I thoroughly enjoyed the outing and interaction. Not to mention the milk tea and the walking around…

And yes, I picked up Audition yesterday night. Since I could ‘take a break’ at any time, it was the perfect game for me (since I can’t sit for more than 30 minutes straight).

Its pretty addictive, and I played it quite a bit yesterday and today… and the best thing was… After yesterday, I felt so much better than the pain seemed to have receded a bit.

I slept for an even longer time (4 hours? 5?) in one sitting. Maybe I was just so tired.

Hopefully tonight though, I’ll be able to get back to normal. The wound on my back is closing, though sometimes I can feel a bit of a ‘buzz’ from it. Signs of recovery maybe?

Life is slowly getting back to what it was.
Slowly.. but surely…

Guess this is another update.

My last change of dressing at the polyclinic was on Sat. I had to walk 15-20 minutes there as I couldn’t hail a cab. Waited and sat for more than an hour, and then walked back.

And when I laid down it got really bad… The pain just started on my left leg and steadily increased until I had to lift my ankles up. Even after that, it gets a bit distracting after a while so I usually stand up and walk a bit, or sit down again.

I tried to sleep, but each time the ‘naps’ don’t last for more than 30-45 minutes before it gets too uncomfortable on the bed. Lately I try to sit on the sofa when that happens too, and I can usually catch a few minutes of ‘zzz’ before I try the bed again, and repeat the cycle.

… And such has been my routine for the past few days.

I think I averaged 3-4 hours a sleep per day for the past 4-5 days, and frankly speaking I’m more than a bit tired.

Saw myself on the mirror, and almost couldn’t recognize the person who looked back.
And I think I may have grown a bit more around the stomach as well! Beh~

I can’t wait for all these to be over and start exercising.. but I gotta have patience and try to recover first.

One step at a time.

Today was the day of my dressing changing at the polyclinic, and surprisingly at 9am, I only made a trip to the toilet before they started calling me. It was a lot faster compared to saturday that’s for sure. Even check out was fast…

Right, on sat they said that my wound was still bleeding. Today (Wed) they said that my wound is still gaping, which I checked on the dictionary and to my understanding is, open. Next appointment at Sat 8am. I don’t want to wait an hour again..~

I called NUH yesterday to try to schedule my appointment to a nearer date instead of 2 months later as I wanted to report on the pain and ask for advice. However, it wasn’t quite successful as the doctor in charge of me only comes every wednesday. Associate professors are quite big shots aren’t they?~

Hence I decided to report to NUH A&E instead.

Took a cab over which cost me $8.60, and paid $90 upfront.
I had no idea it cost so much! Otherwise I may have considered walking to a nearby clinic and getting some painkillers instead of updating my case file… ah well.

I didn’t have to wait too long before I saw the doctor. She was more afraid of the wound being infected, I guess the pains are normal. Prescribed me some painkillers and scheduled me an appointment for Ortho next week. Hopefully it’ll work out better on her end.

One thing that’s bothering me though. Why does everyone look so young? The doctor looks like someone who could pass for my younger sister, the nurse couldn’t be more than 20, and so on.

Oh crap, are they young or am I getting old? Beh.

Took the bus back. Though it wasn’t a long journey, my leg hurt and I was glad when I finally reached home.

Perhaps tonight I’ll be able to sleep properly with the painkillers. Here’s keeping my fingers crossed~

I wasn’t actually intending to write an entry so late.. (it is now 3:46am in the morning after all), but I felt inspired to after watching a few episodes of The Big Bang Theory in a bid to lace myself with some humour.

What was actually keeping me up was the pain I felt in my left leg, which was distracting enough for me not to sleep properly. Sure, it was a lot worse a day or so back but I’m not sure if its gotten any better…

After trying unsuccessfully to sleep after four consecutive 20 minute episodes, I decided to do some research on “Recovery time for Discectomy” which eventually led to “Discectomy recovery” and other searches.

In the next hour, I gained information regarding what usually happens, first hand experience in forums stating how surgery has worked for some people immediately, and how it didn’t for others. How some people got the pain back after a while, while some got theirs drastically reduced.

As I read and carried on reading, it was comforting in a way to know that so many people have this problem. I’m not a sadist but you know how misery craves company… and stuff like that.

Another point that dawned on me was that how lucky I was. While the pain only sought dominance in my life since the acute incident on October and only made its presence felt sparingly else wise, restricting me from jogging and strenuous activities for a year, I’ve read how others much older had to deal with the pain on a day to day basis and frankly…. It sucked.

While I’m only eight(I’ve lost track of time somehow) days into my post op and I am having some pains, I’m still wildly optimistic about recovery, and hope against hope that I will be a lot better … very soon.

That being said, it seems like ‘to feel good again’ will take me at least a month or more depending.
Beh, no wonder I went to JP today and didn’t feel exceedingly excited or anything, even with the newly opened Carl’s Jr.

The last point I realised is that… Life will never be the same again.
My fitness will never be what it used to be. I won’t do doing any regular jogging anytime soon, and perhaps it’ll even take months for me to swim 20 laps in the pool.

I’ll also have to stand up and stretch after 25-30 minutes of sitting, among other daily exercises I foresee myself taking in the future.

(Just took a short walk to the toilet. Sneezed too. That can’t be good for my back. Beh).

Where was I? Uh yea, I’ll probably have to start getting my mind back in focus too.

And definitely try not to rush my recovery. Patience has its virtues in post operation care, and I really wouldn’t want to do something wrong and get a second surgery done.

There are many lessons to be derived from this incident… some I’ve already mentioned, and some I will be mentioning.
Humility is one of them. You’ll never know how it feels to be old and sick, until well, you’ve been there.

Not old, but sick and injured enough to know how the other party would feel, and increase my powers of empathy.

Not to mention how I won’t be taking health for granted anymore. I don’t drink/smoke, and I haven’t been taking in sugared drinks for some time (I try to avoid all these ever since I couldn’t exercise… there has to be a balance somewhere before I grow fat after all). Now I’ll focus more on daily exercises, and maybe even MORE veggies in my diet. I didn’t choose to be of blood type A+.. what to do?

Hmm, I actually wanted to walk around a bit (some of you probably know about my wanderlust), but I just didn’t feel confident about walking at this time of the night. Yes, the old me would have happily sauntered out, maybe even to Macdonalds for some food.

But there’s something about confidence that is linked to mobility. I don’t feel confident when I can’t outrun a cat. What if someone grabs my phone and runs? What if I get pushed? What if…

These fears may be harmless or unfounded, but at this very moment they are a very real threat to me.

Guess I’ll just walk when I feel better again.

Now… time to play some games and get some sleep. I’ve ranted enough…

The following post will sound like one big boring rant. You have been warned.~

And what do you know, this turned out to be one of the longest nights I’ve had … for a long time.

I tried various methods to make the pain go away, from putting my pillow and blanket beneath my knees, to getting a spare pillow, and just lying flat.

Nothing worked … for long anyways. Within 30 minutes or thereabouts, I would always be awake again, looking for the next best spot.

I gave up somewhere in between and sat on my new desktop chair instead for a while, and it helped… before I tried going back to bed.

Yes, you can imagine how bleh it was.

At 6:30-ish though, I really grew tired of trying, so I washed my face, turned on my computer and had some breakfast. A couple of hours later saw me sitting on the living room sofa sleeping.

I’ve never done this before in my life, and suffice to say I didn’t sleep very deeply. But I got my bus sleeping experience to thank.. and also my fatigue that made this completely possible =_=.

Eventually though, I tried to get back on the bed again, and miraculously I managed to sleep for the next 2-3 hours! I’m so happy!

They say that health is a person’s greatest asset. To be able to eat, sleep and walk unassisted is a cause for great joy.
Today, I finally understand.